Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) participates in a House Education and Labor Committee Markup on the H.R. 582 Raise The Wage Act, in the Rayburn House Office Building on March 6, 2019 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Should Muslim Representatives Get a Free Pass on Bigotry?

By a vote of 407—23, the House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred in the United States.

Motivated by appalling expressions of bigotry from freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), it turned into a denunciation of white supremacists and other purveyors of hate against racial and ethnic minorities rather than a censure of the outspoken Muslim representative.

Omar has repeatedly attacked the nation of Israel and accused its U.S. supporters of having an “allegiance to a foreign nation.” As with President Donald Trump, she saves much of her best material for Twitter. On the platform, her hatred of Israel has been visceral. Omar once wrote that “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” Support for Israel is “all about the Benjamins,” she also wrote. Twitter allows one to bare one’s uncensored soul.

So blatant is her hatred of Israel that she’s earned praise from former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, whom the media tries to link to Trump. Duke has argued that Omar is the most important member of Congress because of her defiance of “ZOG.” ZOG is an acronym for Zionist Occupied Government—a favorite topic of anti-Semites.

What we see from Congress is a reluctance and fear of denouncing racism when it is manifested by racial and ethnic minorities. Apparently, racial bigots get a free pass when they are “persons of color.” Unless, of course, the person happens to be a conservative racial or ethnic minority. Then hell has no fury like that unleashed against minorities who violate the racial code that minorities must stick together around a tired and worn-out racial narrative that serves the political goals of leftist democrats.

Repeatedly, we find leftist politicians and their media lapdogs seeking to paint Republicans as racist, while engaging in blatant racism themselves.

Racist Attacks

Recently, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) embarrassed herself and, hopefully, her political party by making a shameless attack on Housing and Urban Development official Lynne Patton. Tlaib referred to Patton as a prop. She suggested it was racist for Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) to have invited Patton to sit behind him at a House Oversight Committee hearing, where former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was accusing the president of racism.

But rather than leave it at that, the left is doubling down with more racist attacks.

Former Courier-Journal editor Bennie Ivory tells readers that Patton’s presence at the hearing was “an obscenely insulting and surreal scene reminiscent of another place in time, when slaves were put on display on the auction block for inspection.”

Ivory complains that Patton “stood silently,” and uses the fact that Meadows told her story as evidence of a slavemaster-like performance, but ignores the fact that the rules prevented Patton from speaking because she isn’t a committee member and wasn’t a witness at the hearing.

The left regularly maligns conservatives who stray from the plantation. Just ask North Carolina sisters Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, better known as YouTube stars Diamond and Silk. They have been ridiculed from the moment they started supporting Trump.

Racial double standards shouldn’t be the norm in Congress, nor in other U.S. institutions. Minorities should abide by the same rules and standards as the majority group.

When we turn a blind eye to racial and ethnic bigotry emanating from minorities, it creates resentment from members of the majority group who, if they are Republicans, are judged harshly and given less chance to defend themselves.

Case in point, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) was “named and shamed” by Congress and stripped of his committee assignments before he had an opportunity to explain the context of a few sentences in an hourlong interview with a liberal New York Times reporter that got him labeled as a white nationalist.

King, who is politically incorrect, isn’t a white supremacist but a defender of free speech. It’s an unfortunate double standard that shields minority racists and white liberals such as Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and other Democrats from accountability.

No member of Congress should get a free pass on racism and bigotry, because their behavior affects every one of us. Omar represents a threat to Israel and has no business siting on the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee, where she has access to sensitive national security information.

We the People must Be the People who hold the entire Congress accountable for how they represent us before the world. Bigotry and racial double standards have no place in the U.S. Congress.

Carol M. Swain is a former tenured professor at Vanderbilt and Princeton universities. Her Be The People News blog and podcast empower individuals to think independently, understand their responsibility, and make a difference in the world.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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